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Thursday, August 2, 2012

I love making home decor projects! That's what I've actually been working on here lately. I do have some scrapbook pages done (paper ones) but Ali made me swear I wouldn't share hers...she hates the school picture I used. So I guess I won't post those this time. I do have a few other projects to show you!

This first one was done for a Relief Society activity at church. We were trying to tie in photography and memory keeping together and I had made some wall-art like this a few years ago. Remember this post? Here's the new one. I have it hanging in my bedroom. {my pictures aren't the greatest today...sorry!}

These were done the same way the others were...basically. All you do is find you a frame...I use 10 x 13" frame and a 5 x 7 photo. Ok...then just crackle paint it. For this one, I gesso'd it, let it dry, and then painted it black. Then I painted it a 2nd time in black. Before the 2nd coat dried all the way, I painted some One-step Crackle (from DecoArt) on it. So it crackled it but almost barely noticeable. I wanted it to look a little aged but not decrepit. ;)

Cut some corrugated cardboard to fit the frame. Rip off one side of it to expose the corrugated part. You can be as clean or grungy as you want. The other frames I did were grungier than this one. I still left some grunge on it though. Or if you are like one of the other ladies that were at the activity, when you get completely done with a piece of really stubborn cardboard, you open the frame to find a piece already done for you that the frame manufacturer was using as backing. lol Now, you can ink it up. I just ran a Vintage Photo Distress Ink pad over the top of the corrugated part. I also spot inked some Walnut Ink Distress Ink over parts too.

I think the patterned paper is from the Wild Asparagus collection from My Mind's Eye. You can tear it now or wait until you get the red piece done so you can measure it easier. When you do tear it, ink the edges up with some distress ink. The red piece is a piece of packing paper (save that stuff...you never know what you can do with it!). I mixed up some Making Memories scrapbook dye (Cranberry) and sprayed it and let it dry. You can tear it before or after you dye it. Ink those edges up too.

I made my photo in Photoshop using some techniques I learned from this class from Jessica Sprague. I also turned the photo to sepia. You can use any photo treatment that you like though. :)

Layer the photo, then the red paper and the patterned paper and then center it on the cardboard. Dress it up however else you like. Here I used some embellishments (banner, bakers twine, tag, and jewels from Heidi Swapp's Daily Junque and Soiree; the flower from Prima; rhinestone brad and library clip from Stampin' Up!; ribbon, fiber, and lace from my stash). Oh and the Don't Forget tag is from House of 3's store in the Silhouette store. All in all, it's a pretty easy project. The cardboard can be time-consuming though depending on how stubborn it's being. :)

I bought a couple of workshops from Nancie Rowe Janitz when she first came to Jessica Sprague. I just now had some time to work on them. Michael's must have known because they put their canvases on sale this week...buy one, get one free. Or if you don't like the ones on sale, they have a 40% off coupon for the rest of them. :) The first workshop is Grateful Canvas Wall Art. Mine didn't turn out as good as hers...I swear Mod Podge has something against me! I also painted the edges of my canvas with some Rich Espresso paint (DecoArt's Dazzling Metallics Elegant Finish).

The other one is Creating Subway Art. Apparently, gel medium doesn't really like me much better than the Mod Podge does so mine is way more grungier than Nancie's.

I've got some more projects I'm working on too. One is for Ali's room and I'll take photos when I finish it (hopefully better photos than the ones I posted today!). I also finally started Colton's school picture album so he'll have one like his brother and sister. I have the album built but need to add his first 2 years of school first.